News

Details

Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Says Serving Patients Is a Corporal Work of Mercy

KIEV, Ukraine, APRIL 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Church must never fail to support those infected with HIV/AIDS and work to overcome the stigma often associated with the disease, says the archbishop of Glasgow, Scotland.

That was the message given Thursday by Archbishop Mario Conti at the three-day HIV/AIDS conference organized by Caritas Europa in Kiev.

Archbishop Conti told delegates from all over Europe that assisting those living with HIV/AIDS is a modern corporal work of mercy.

Reminding his audience that the Church has a long tradition of ministering to those rejected by society, the 73-year-old archbishop called for more efforts to overcome mistaken prejudices about the Church's attitude to AIDS.

Archbishop Conti said: "It needs to be said again and again that the Catholic Church is committed to those works of mercy in the field of HIV/AIDS. It is very regrettable that such a message rarely gets across.

"Prejudice assumes that because the spread of the virus in some cases is through sexual intercourse, the Catholic Church will be unsympathetic to its victims."

"Worse still," the archbishop continued, "an accusation has been leveled at the Church that its attitude and teaching against the use of condoms has been a factor in the spread of the disease."

Providing health care

Archbishop Conti said that the Church is the leading caregiver for AIDS victims.

"Neutral estimates suggest that 25% of all people in the world living with HIV/AIDS are being assisted or cared for by the Catholic Church and its institutions," he said. "Indeed, there is no larger provider of health care to this group.

"The Church is being most true to itself when presenting a vision of life and a program of human behavior which becomes the dignity of man and woman in one of the most significant interrelational acts, namely that of conjugal love."

The Glasgow prelate added: "Where that vision is embraced and that practice endorsed we can see the fruits are not only discernible in cultural terms but also in terms of public health.

"Uganda is one of the greatest success stories in the fight against AIDS, with its abstinence program bringing down the HIV infection rate from more than 30% to below 6%."

Archbishop Conti said, "Restoring people's confidence and helping them overcome prejudice is an essential part of any work with HIV/AIDS patients. In doing so, Church agencies must lead by example."

Code: ZE07043011

Date: 2007-04-30

Details

Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Says Press Is a Meeting Place for Many Traditions

ROME, APRIL 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Modern means of communication can become a venue for interreligious dialogue, says a professor of theology and ecumenism.

Joan-Andreu Rocha Scarpetta is the director of the master's program "Church, Ecumenism and Religions" at the Regina Apostolorum university in Rome.

He addressed participants in the meeting on "Religion in the Press: Catholicism and Other Religions in Both Lay and Religious Daily Newspapers," which was recently held at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Rocha explained: "The press becomes a space for dialogue between various religions in the strict sense that it offers a space for believers of different religious traditions to get closer, for example, through interviews with representatives of various religions on specific social questions.

"It is also a place of dialogue when it echoes the concrete ecumenical process of cooperation and dialogue taking place between the different religious groups."

In the end, it becomes a place for dialogue "when it contributes to overcoming stereotypes and tries to transmit the religious reality in accurate terms," he added.

Language conflict

Rocha nevertheless noted that "there is a conflict between the language of the press and religious language."

While "the language of the press, for reasons of space and time, tends toward simplification," one can see how "speaking about religion requires subtlety and long essays," he said.

The professor contended that "the goal of interreligious dialogue is not to negotiate one's identity or create one religion overcoming religious pluralism," but rather "to try, above all, to establish a relationship of the identity of the other, to recognize him in himself as an 'other,' different but similar, overcoming centuries of prejudice and misunderstandings."

"Interreligious dialogue in the press in possible," Rocha concluded, as long as "the journalist tries to overcome stereotypes and gives a voice to all the various factors that make up a religious tradition" and as long as "the followers of that religion themselves learn to speak about their religious identity in a language that is understandable to public opinion."

Code: ZE07043001

Date: 2007-04-30

Details

Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Receives Death Threat for Defending Marriage

GENOA, Italy, APRIL 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa said he won't be intimidated after receiving another death threat, seemingly in response to his defense of the family founded on marriage.

The president of the Italian bishops' conference found an envelope in his residence on Friday, containing a bullet and a photo of himself with a swastika drawn on it, the Genoan daily newspaper Il Corriere Mercantile reported.

Armed bodyguards have accompanied the 64-year-old archbishop since the beginning of April, when threatening graffiti were found on the cathedral door and along the streets of Genoa.

The threats came following Archbishop Bagnasco's public declarations in defense of the traditional family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, specifically the Italian bishops' "Note Regarding the Family Founded on Marriage and Legislative Initiatives Concerning Civil Unions."

In the note, the prelates reminded Catholic politicians and lawmakers of their duty not to vote for legislation in favor of civil unions or laws that would favor the legal recognition of homosexual couples.

Stronger and clearer

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Pope's vicar for Rome, and the previous president of the Italian episcopal conference, asserted that the Catholic Church in Italy will not be intimidated.

His words were published today in the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.

"Faced with these attempts at intimidation, we want everyone to know that we will speak, if necessary, in a stronger and clearer way," said the cardinal.

Archbishop Bagnasco has spoken several times about the implicit dangers in legislation adopted by the Italian government Feb. 8, which points to offering legal recognition of de facto unions between homosexual or heterosexual couples.

On March 26, at the beginning of the Italian bishops' permanent council meeting, Archbishop Bagnasco stressed that the prelates are firm in their decision to defend "the utter uniqueness of the family in order to help the family, educate it and value it for the good -- present and future -- of humanity."

He added that they will fight "so that families will not give in under the pressures of those lobbies that are able to negatively influence the legislative process."

Code: ZE07043002

Date: 2007-04-30

Details

Last Updated: 19 February 2013

But Cardinal Defends Church, Citing Catechism

ROME, APRIL 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Church officials criticized a European Parliament resolution that condemns "discriminatory comments" made by political and religious leaders against homosexuals.

The resolution, which passed 325-124, with 150 abstentions, condemns the "discriminatory comments formulated by politicians and religious leaders about homosexuals, as fermenting hatred and violence -- even if they were later withdrawn -- and it asks that the hierarchies of the respective organizations condemn them as well."

The European Parliament did refuse to include the proposal of three Italians to publicly condemn Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco for his statements against homosexuals, which were falsely interpreted by the press and then later clarified.

The approved resolution invites member states to propose laws "that overcome discriminations suffered by same sex couples" and "reminds all member states that the prohibition of the Gay Pride Parade and the lack of protection offered to its participants are against the principles of the European Convention of human rights."

The resolution also proposes that an annual "International Day Against Homophobia" be held on May 17.

Time to settle

Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice and Cardinal Peter Erdo and Monsignor Aldo Giordano, president and secretary-general of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences, respectively, defended the Church against accusations that it doesn't respect homosexual persons.

"There is no homophobia in the Catholic Church and it is time that all this ended," Cardinal Scola said on Thursday to the Italian bishops' television network, Sat 2000.

Referring to the European Parliament, he said: "There needs to be more respect for the orientation of our people. There is no need to tell lies."

Paolo Bustaffa, director of the Italian bishops' SIR news agency, told Vatican Radio last Thursday: "It is clear that they are suspicious of the Church's thinking in regard to these situations, these people, for whom -- the Catechism of the Catholic Church says -- the Church has a great respect."

"Respect for people, however, cannot nullify a problematic aspect," he added. "There must be understanding but in many cases there cannot be justification."

Code: ZE07043004

Date: 2007-04-30

Details

Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Concludes Conference on Climate Change

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- A Vatican official warned against idolizing the environment and losing sight of the dignity of the human person, in the wake of a conference on climate change and development.

Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said this Friday, at the end of the dicastery's two-day conference.

It brought together some 80 experts and focused on various aspects of climate change and the development of peoples.

"Nature is for the human person and the human person is for God," Cardinal Martino said. "In considering the problems associated with climate change, one must look to the social doctrine of the Church," which "neither supports the absolutization of nature, nor the reduction of nature to a mere instrument."

"Nature is not an absolute, but a wealth that is placed in the person's responsible and prudent hands," he added.

Indisputable superiority

The president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace explained that the human person cannot be placed on an equal plane with other creatures.

"The person has an indisputable superiority over creation and, in virtue of his personhood and being gifted with an immortal soul, cannot be placed on an equal plane with other living beings, nor can he be considered a disturbing element in the natural ecological equilibrium," the 74-year-old cardinal said.

He continued: "The person does not have an absolute right over nature but rather a mandate to conserve and develop it in light of the universal destination of the earth's goods which is one of the fundamental principles of the social doctrine of the Church."

Losing sight

The president of the Vatican dicastery noted the problems associated with climate change, and said that "the social doctrine of the Church must deal with the many modern forms of idolatry of nature that lose sight of the person."

"Similar views of ecology emerge in the debate on demographic problems and on the relationship between peoples, environment and development," he added.

Cardinal Martino recalled the 1994 international conference in Cairo on population and development.

There, "the Holy See had to oppose, together with many Third World countries, the idea that the increase in population in the coming decades would cause the collapse of the earth's natural balances and would impede development," he said.

Refuted

"These theses have been refuted and, thank goodness, are in regression," said the cardinal. He explained that the proposed solutions for these erroneous ideas were abortion and mass sterilization of the poor.

"The Church proposes a realistic view of things. She has faith in the person and in his ability to look for new solutions to the problems that history places before him -- an ability that enables him to refute recurring and improbable catastrophic forecasts," he added.

The cardinal recalled that "according to the concept of human ecology developed by Pope John Paul II, ecology is not only a natural emergency, but an anthropological emergency, in which what is valued is man's relationship with himself and above all his relationship with God."

"An anthropological error is therefore a theological error," underlined Cardinal Martino. "When the person wants to take God's place, he loses sight of himself and his responsibility to govern nature."

Code: ZE07043005

Date: 2007-04-30

Details

Last Updated: 19 February 2013

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI will pray during May that Christians allow themselves to be guided by the Word of God.

The Apostleship of Prayer announced the general intention chosen by the Pope: "That, following the example of the Virgin Mary, all Christians should allow themselves to be guided by the Word of God and always remain attentive to the signs of the Lord in his own life."

The Holy Father also chooses an apostolic intention for each month. In May, he will pray that "in mission territories there may be no lack of good and enlightened teachers in the major seminaries and in the institutes of consecrated life."

Code: ZE07043006

Date: 2007-04-30